Let's Visit a Tide Pool

Click on the link below to view our chatterpix tide pool creatures as they share facts about themselves.

Tide Pool Critters

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

 

We have enjoyed our time in kindergarten this year.

Please click on the link below the picture to view all the fun we have had together.

 

 

Mrs. Craven's 2013-2014 Class in pictures.

Thank You!

Thank you very much for the beautiful flowers you gave me on Teacher Appreciation Day!  It was very thoughtful.  I enjoy them every time I look at them.

Exploring Simple Machines

Classroom Newsletter May 9, 2014

Language Arts

Writing – It is evident that the children are using the strategy of tapping out sounds in words in order to be able to spell with increasing accuracy in their writing.  It is very exciting to see the growth in independence in all the children.  During our writing mini-lessons, the children have been editing samples of my writing.  They are able to find misspelled trick words, missing ending sounds, incorrect vowels, as well as missing punctuation and capitals.  I continue to remind them that these are the things they need to be aware of in their own writing as well.  Self-editing will become more important as they continue on into the upper grades.

Reading – The children work on reading books at their own level during guided reading groups.  All children continue to show growth in their ability to decode independently as well as to read more fluently.  We work on comprehension skills as we discuss what is happening in the story and talk about connections between the story and the children’s own lives.  We have been reading non-fiction texts during our literature groups as well.  I will also be reading with each child individually as I begin my end of year assessments.

Genre Study – We have started our non-fiction genre study.  We have been exploring different types of non-fiction texts and adding to a list of characteristics we notice.  The children are developing an awareness of terms such as table of contents, index, and glossary.  They have noticed the use of photographs in non-fiction texts and are becoming aware of how illustrations support the text through the use of labels and diagrams, for example.  We are developing our understanding of non-fiction writing as well.  The children have done some procedural writing, writing in an organized way and explaining how to do something step by step.  They will also be learning how to do expository non-fiction writing and will be writing facts about sea life during our ocean unit.

Literacy Centers – We are beginning our study of ocean life and tidepools.  This week we reviewed what we learned during our visit from Ellen Goethel, marine biologist, and her Touch Tank enrichment program.

Math

Our current math chapter has focused on composing and decomposing numbers through 20.  We are learning how to combine sets, find out how many more are needed to arrive at a given number, as well as learning how to count on to find the difference between two numbers.  The children are also learning how to count on using a numberline.  We have explored patterns and learned to identify repeating patterns and pattern units.  After a chapter on measurement, we will begin our unit on subtraction.

Science and Health

In Science we finished our unit on Transportation by inventing our own vehicles.  The children had some very creative ideas!  We also talked about wheels and their importance in making transporting things easier.  We went on a “wheel walk” around the classroom and the school and wrote about what we saw.  We talked about wheels and axles again during our unit on Simple Machines.  The children had the opportunity to explore wheels and axles using Tinker Toys and rolling them down an inclined plane.  They experimented with rolling different sized balls down inclined planes set at different heights.  They lifted objects in a beach bucket pulley and worked with gears and other wooden models of simple machines.  The favorite activity was using a hand-held egg beater to see if they could make bubbles in a bowl of water and dish detergent.  Using the egg beater was much more interesting than using the wooden spoon!

Our next unit will focus again on Living and Non-LivingThings.   We will be talking about seeds and doing some planting.  We will also begin our study of tidepools and ocean life.

Upcoming Dates

6/3 Field Trip to Joppa Flats 

6/10 Portfolio Breakfast 8:30 – 9:15

6/18 Field Day

6/20 Field Day Raindate 

Portfolio Breakfast

Please join us on Tuesday, June 10th from 8:30 – 9:15 for a Portfolio Breakfast.  This is a special opportunity for some one on one time with your child.  Your child has made wonderful progress while in kindergarten and would love to share their work with you.  Room mothers may be contacting you about food items to bring.  We look forward to seeing you.

Supplies Needed

If you are able to donate anti-bacterial hand wipes to our classroom it would be greatly appreciated.  Also, we are in need of disinfecting wipes to clean the tables as well as tissues.  Thank you very much.

 

Touch Tank with Ellen Goethel, marine biologist

Classroom Newsletter March 28, 2014

Language Arts

Journal Writing – The children are writing at least three sentences in their journals now.  One of these sentences is a reaction to their topic, how they felt or an action taken.  The children enjoy sharing their writing each week and notice the progress everyone is making.  In addition to the narrative writing which we do weekly in our journals, the children have also been working on opinion writing during Writers’ Workshop.  I have been reading books and presenting the children with a question which requires that they give their opinion.  They must also give a reason why they feel the way they do.  Sometimes we just have a class discussion about our opinions, and sometimes we write about our opinions.  The children have shown growth in their understanding of this type of writing.

Fundations – We are now working on Unit 4 of this program.  We continue to drill vowel sounds and challenging letter sounds on a daily basis.  We are working on the proper formation of upper and lower-case letters as well as punctuation and spelling during our dictation lessons.  The children have become very proficient at being able to systematically tap out and blend words with three sounds and are applying this skill to their reading and writing.  The children are very excited about being “digraph detectives” and enjoy pointing out digraphs they see around the classroom.  The digraphs introduced are “sh, ch, th, wh, and ck”.

Reading - We continue to review the Kindergarten sight words and read books focusing on repeated exposure to these words.  The children work on one-to-one correspondence, using word wall words as an anchor, and using the picture and the beginning letter sound to help them figure out unknown words.  The children use the decoding strategies which have been introduced during our Fundations lessons.

The children continue to enjoy the Daily Five reading time when they “Read to Self” and “Read to Someone” and “Listen to Reading”.  They are independent during this part of our reading time, and I have the opportunity to work with small groups or individuals on other aspects of reading development.  I keep stressing to the children that in order to become better, more fluent readers it is important for them to practice reading in different ways.  They should read to themselves, to others, and they should listen to peers and grown-ups read aloud as well.

W.I.N. time – Each day we have a block of time which we now call W.I.N. (What I Need) time.  During this time, the Daily Five is used as the organizational structure, and children practice reading in the different ways described above.  I meet with individuals and small groups to work on different aspects of reading, writing, math, handwriting or any other aspect of the curriculum which needs to be reinforced, retaught, or extended.  There are other adults working with small groups and/or individuals at this time as well.

Literacy Centers – We talked about Spring and have been working on many activities based on this theme.  We wrote acrostic poems about Spring, read books about Spring and built a list of words in the –ing word family.

Math 

We completed Chapter 9 where our focus was on comparing sets of up to 20 objects.  The children continue to develop a more solid understanding of the concepts of more, fewer, less, most, and fewest.  They count the difference through comparing sets in one-to-one correspondence and answer questions, “How many more?  How many fewer?”  The children have also been counting on and adding using number trains/number lines.

We continue to practice skip counting by 2’s, by 5’s, and by 10’s each day during our calendar time.  We also practice counting on to 100 from any given number.  We keep count of the days we have been in school by using tallies.

We worked on ordinal numbers and are currently completing a unit which reinforces calendar concepts including days of the week, months of the year, as well as the concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Science and Health 

We completed our unit on Properties of Materials and are now working on a unit on Transportation.  We have been reading books and talking about different ways to travel by land, air, and water.  The children worked on a mural depicting these many different ways to travel.  We will be inventing our own forms of transportation with the recyclable materials you have been sending to school.  Look for some interesting vehicles during our upcoming Open House on Thursday, April 10th!

Important Dates 

Friday, April 4th – Early Release 1:15 Dismissal
Thursday, April 10th – Open House – 6:00 - 6:45

Thank You

Many thanks to Mrs. Hodges for reading us a Dr. Seuss book during Read Across America Day.  We enjoyed having her in our classroom.

Welcome

We would like to congratulate Mason and his family on the arrival of Fiona.  We are excited that Mason has a new baby sister.

We would like to welcome Miss P., our new student intern, to our classroom.  We are happy to have her with us.

Supplies Needed

If you are able to donate anti-bacterial hand wipes to our classroom it would be greatly appreciated.  Also, we are in need of pencils for our classroom.  The children are comfortable writing with the fatter pencils for first writers as well as the skinnier #2 pencils used by the older children.  Thank you very much.